lifestyles
13
Birds of a feather
Students dedicated to Jayhawk sports wear their hearts not on their sleeves but on their heads.
--obnoxious," he said of the Antlers.
Story by Luisa Flores
From left, Phil McGuire, St. Louis sophomore, Kara Richardson, Lawrence sophomore, and Michelle Shively, Overland Park sophomore, enjoy a recent KU mens basketball game.
Sean Crosier / KANSAN
Richard Devinki / KANSAN
Todd Simms, Memphis, Tenn.. junior, wore a hawk hat at a recent Kansas basketball game in Allen Field House.
E very time the Jayhaws score, crimson and blue birds jump up and down behind the north basket of Allen Field House.
The birds are attached to the heads of Jayhawks fans known as the Hawkheads.
The Hawkheads are a group of KU students who share friendship and a passion for the Jayhawks.
Phil McGuire, St. Louis sophomore, was the first to bring a Jayhawk hat to the group. He thought of the hat as a way to have some extra fun during the Jayhawks football game against the Kansas State Wildcats on Oct. 6 at Memorial Stadium.
"I was shopping in Dillons for food and pop, and I saw the hats," he said. He got the hats to see if he could get on television, he said.
That evening the Jayhawks lost the game, and K-State students tore down the goal post at Memorial Stadium, but the Hawkheads had fun anyway.
"After that, it just made sense to name the group the Hawkheads," said Todd Simms. Memphis junior
"It worked to get on TV," McGuire said.
Now 13 fans strong, most of the Hawkheads live on the fourth floor of Ellsworth Hall.
Simus said that there were two requirements to be a Hawkhead.
"If a person wants to be a Hawkhead, he just has to have a hat and be a dedicated Jayhawk," he said.
But it's not as simple as it would seem. The Hawkheads take being a dedicated Jawhawk seriously.
Mascot Mania
The founding members of the Hawkheads:
The group's dedication begins before the game when it camps out at the field house before the games to get good seats.
"I bring a sleeping bag and my books. I do a lot of studying here. It is very quiet and a good place to listen music," said Seth Winnerman, St. Louis sonhomore.
While their No. 1 cheering strategy is the Jayhawk hat, they also paint their faces crimson and blue, write signs, throw their friends several feet into the air and, of course, cheer for the Jayhawks.
The Hawkheads also yell to players from other teams but without offense. "We don't really want to hurt their feelings. We just want to break their concentration." Simms said.
Simms said that the Hawkheads were somewhat similar to the Antlers at the University of Missouri. The difference between the two groups is that the Hawkheads respect players from other teams. "They are really
"Pearson moves his head and looks at me as if I were a freak. Other times he points at me." Simms said.
The Hawkheads could be the beginning of a new sports tradition at KU. Other typical KU sports traditions are nearly a century old or older.
Sometimes they try to get the attention of the players. Simms, for example, likes to yell the name of one of his favorite players, Kansas junior forward, Sean Pearson. Simms calls to him while Pearson is sitting in the bench.
Crimson and blue have been the official KU team colors since 1896. In 1897, KU officially adopted the "Rock Chalk" chant.
The name jayhawks is 109 years old.
The Hawkheads tradition was born just five months ago.
The Hawkheads have creative ways of addressing players from other teams without offending them. During the Iowa State game, it took Kara Richardson, Lawrence sophomore and member of the Hawkheads, less than a half hour to make a special sign for the game. The target of the
The Hawkheads tradition was born just five months ago.
Todd Simm, Memphis junior
Phil McGuire, St. Louis sophomore
Russ McGuire, Harper sophomore
Ryan Kern, Washington, Kan, freshman
Kris Hassler, Washington, Kan, freshman
B. J. Ducey, Alamo, Calif., freshman
Jill Philipse, St. Louis sophomore
Kristen Dueck, San Diego freshman
Jen Steinman, St. Louis freshman
Kara Richardson, Lawrence sophomore
Darett Burr, Scott City sophomore
Seth Winnerman, St. Louis sophomore
sign was Fred Hoiberg, Iowa State senior forward. Hoiberg is known in his hometown of Ames as "the mayor" because
The Hawkheads'sign read, "Impeach the mayor."
of his popularity.
"he scored 32 points against us in the last game with Iowa State, so we wanted to impeach him," Richardson said.
People who see the Hawkheads react differently to them. Some love them.
"We are trying to show a little bit of the atmosphere here and what Kansas is like." Hezmens said.
"During the Connecticut game, some lady wanted to buy my hat for $35," Simms said. "I didn't want to sell it. The hat is mine. I like it a lot, but I
Bob Hezmers, TV producer for Creative Sports, shot the Hawkheads during the Iowa State game for "Studio 66," a halftime TV show.
would give it to Roy Williams."
While other people may support them, they will not put a stuffed Jayhawk on their heads.
"They are in the basketball spirit. They support the team, but I would never wear a hat like that," said Doug Wyatt, who works as usher during the games.
Other fans appreciate their dedication.
"They are real die-hard fans. I'm glad that they are starting a new fan tradition," said Lynnette Valencia, Lawrence senior.
"Our goal is to make Hawkheads a tradition," he said, "so people will think of Jayhawks and the Hawkheads. When I graduate I want other students to carry on the Hawkhead tradition."
Simms agreed.
Now television is dumb and dumber
By Frazier Moore
APTelevision Writer
NEW YORK — Dumbness has overtaken movies. What else can you conclude with such current and coming titles as "Dumb and Dumber," "Idiots," "Dummies" and "The Stupids?"
Not that television, long known as "the idiot box," is any stranger to dumbosity.
If we brave a February morning to stand at a sidewalk "interactive klosk" outside the "Today" show's mid-Manhattan studio, we can chat, on the air, with Katie Couric on the other side of the double-paned window, to President Clinton in the Oval Office, to Nelson Mandela half a globe away.
That's because we in TV land are increasingly involved in the product. We're given access to the tube. We're part of the show. We're interactive!
But there's a difference. Movies are dumb because filmmakers make them that way. Television? The viewers bring a share of its dumbness on themselves.
Better yet, we can all go interactive from the privacy of our homes and in a multiplicity of ways.
For instance, "You can call us, fax us or go on-line with CompuServe," we're constantly reminded on CNN's "TalkBack Live."
It's interactive! Communal! And American to a fault!
That is, in a nation where all men are created equal, a media egalitarianism has been loosed across the cyberscape, holding that everyone has an inalienable right to the camera or the mike.
This is more than the Constitution's guarantee of free speech. It's a media grant to grant any of us an
"Try to rehabilitate them," says Paul, meaning inmates. "But don't coddle them! I was in the second World War, and I slept in barracks with no air conditioning."
For a few moments, the full force of America's Talking has been at the service of analysis that reduces the issue of penal reform to the intellectual rigor of what's your favorite color?
On the phone with the America's Talking cable channel, "Join the Conversation!" Paul in South Carolina is tackling the question, "What do you think about the situation inside our federal prisons?"
audience for our chosen outburst no matter how intelligent or dumb what we have to say is.
But Paul isn't alone. Especially with the O.J. Simpson trial expanding the ranks of interactive faddists. We're all talking O.J. anyway, we figure, so why not do it for the whole world to hear?
No useful insights here, just a sentimental journey. It is not the inmates, but Paul — favored with this platform to speak his murky, ill-informed piece — who has been coddled.
Soon, a viewer's fax is held up to the camera, advising that prosecutor Marcia Clark "take a pill and chill," or O.J. will walk. Another viewer's fax says that "O.J. stands for "Outa Jail."
"You can give us your opinion on anything," the anchor cajoles during Simpson trial coverage on E! Entertainment Television.
These aren't opinions. They're graffiti.
And what better example than the interactive craze?
Under its newly democratized rules of discourse,
nothing is required but that we press a few buttons.
"Populism, in its latest manifestation celebrates ignorant opinion and undifferentiated rage," writes Michael Kinsley in a recent issue of the New Yorker magazine
whether on our phone, fax machine or computer keyboard, and blurt out whatever pops into our mind, however mindless.
"It's not just that Americans are scandalously ignorant," he adds. "It's that they seem to believe they have a democratic right to their ignorance."
Certainly, the forces of technology and carte blanche that have given us access to the airwaves tend to overlook, then absolve us of that ignorance. Getting on TV, not making a useful point, becomes the point.
And as long as one and all are welcome to "join the conversation," it won't be any different for the shows that do the welcoming: All too often, they'll be dumb.
Elsewhere in television, "Frasier" welcomes Sam. It's a shameless ratings stunt. It's also wonderful and funny when Ted Danson reprises his "Cheers" role as Sam Malone for Tuesday's guest shot on "Frasier." Having flown from Boston to his barroom buddy Frasier's side in Seattle, Sam has a problem. A woman, of course. Then it turns out Frasier has a problem with her too. Any fan of "Cheers," and especially viewers who don't much care for "Frasier," will be delighted with this half-hour reunion of two former castmates of the best sitcom of the past decade. This special episode of "Frasier," preceding another "Frasier" repeat a half-hour later, airs at 8 p.m. on Tuesday on NBC.
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Cultural Calendar
EXHIBITIONS AND LECTURES
Lecture—"An Evening with Langston Hughes" by actor Danny Glover at 4 p.m. today at Pierson Auditorium, UMKC University Center, 50th and Holmes streets, Kansas City, Mo.
Lecture—"Making a Difference: Biology and the Scientific Construction of Sexuality" by Anne Fausto-Sterling at 7:30 p.m. today at the Kansas Room in the Kansas Union.
Lecture—"Squeak Carnawth" at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Spencer Museum of Art Auditorium.
Lecture—"Jewish Identity in Art" by Bezalel Narkiss at 2 p.m. Sunday at Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak St., Kansas City, Mo.
Exhibition—Art and Design Department presents a Graduate Student Exhibition Sunday through March 3 at the Art and Design Gallery.
Lecture—"Out of the Village and into the Plexiglas: Baule of the Ivory Coast" by Susan Vogel at 7 p.m. Monday at the Spencer Museum of Art Auditorium.
Lecture—"No Graven Images in Jewish, Christian and Muslim Art" by Bezalel Narkiss at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Spencer Museum of Art Auditorium.
PERFORMANCES
Theater League presents "A Chorus Line" today through Sunday at the Music Hall, 13th and Central streets, Kansas City, Mo. Tickets range from $20.50 to $29.50.
Department of Music and Dance presents a Faculty Recital by Abby Simon at 7:30 p.m. today at Swarthout Recital Hall.
Department of Music and Dance presents a Student Recital by Amy Glidden at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at Swarthout Recital Hall.
Renegade Theatre presents "American Airborne" at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at 518 East Eighth St. Tickets $7.
Ottawa University Theatre presents "Lost in Yonkers" at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Third and Hickory streets, Ottawa. Tickets range from $3.25 to $6.50.
KANU Radio presents "Gooottime Radio Revue" at 7:15 p.m. Saturday at Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St.
Tickets range from $4 to $8.
Folly Theater presents "The Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band" at 8 p.m. Saturday at 300 W. 12th St., Kansas City, Mo. Tickets range from $18 to $20.
Topela Performing Arts Center presents "The Will Rogers Follies" at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at 214 S.E. Eighth St., Topela. Tickets range from $25 to $35.
Department of Music and Dance presents a Doctoral Recital by Martin Tel at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, 1631 Crescent Road.
Department of Music and Dance presents a Winter Concert with University Band and Concert Band at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Lied Center. Tickets range from $2 to $4. Department of Music and Dance presents a Doctoral Lecture-Recital at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Swarthout Recital Hall.